The crypto market is yet to start the much expected bull run. All the digital currencies in the market are still deep in the red. Bitcoin (BTC) is yet to recover, and it’s still struggling to break over the $4,000 level. The digital currency recently broke below the key psychological levels of $6,000 and $5,000. The value of the coin is now eyeing the $3,000 mark.

The value of Ethereum (ETH) is one of the most discouraging in the market. Looking at the value of the coin alone, one would think the glory days are long gone. Ethereum (ETH) traded close to the $1,500 in December last year. Nevertheless, the digital currency is now down by more than 90 percent from its all-time high. Ethereum is now trading below the $110 mark at the press time.

According to Forbes, the co-founder of BTC China – Bobby Lee – no longer believes in the use cases of blockchain technology outside the world of Bitcoin. The DLT (Distributed ledger Technology) is the main deal that is more likely to transform our lives. No doubt, the government have also used this technology for a lot of pilots.

For instance, blockchain technology is used for land registry in Georgia. This has greatly reduced the time, as well as the cost, of registering a property. Many governments, all over the world, have adopted this technology for one thing or the other.

Another Bitcoin (BTC) Whale Moves Over $250 Million Worth of Bitcoin (BTC)

A big Bitcoin (BTC) whale was recently spotted in the crypto verse. According to a report, a Bitcoin (BTC) whale just moved Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $250 million. The fund was moved from a very old Bitcoin address. A move of such magnitude could have a huge effect on the value of the digital currency.

Nevertheless, orders of this nature don’t go through normal trading platforms. This would greatly disrupt the price of the coin in the market. Hence, they adopted another route in the movement of the fund.

Bitcoin (BTC) is yet to start a major bullish run. A lot of investors and traders are patiently waiting for the sharp recovery of the crypto market. However, no one knows how huge the next recovery would be and when it would be.

Here are some Bitcoin expert predictions about 2019:

Joel Kruger, currency strategist at LMAX Exchange

“Our 2019 outlook for Bitcoin is far more constructive than what we had been projecting for 2018. As 2017 came to a close, we had warned Bitcoin had rocketed ‘past the point of rational appreciation’ and highlighted massive downside risk in a bubbling market with far too many holes (regulation, development, hard forks).

“As we head into 2019, Bitcoin has retraced that move and then some, with a recent breakdown below the $6,000 area, opening this next downside extension that targets a bigger drop towards the September 2017 low at $2,975.

“While we wouldn’t rule out a downside extension that takes Bitcoin through $2,000, we don’t believe the price will spend too much time below this barrier and will start to find renewed demand ahead of an eventual push back to the topside.

“As much as the crypto market would like to make the argument for Bitcoin as a store of value asset, at this stage in the game, Bitcoin is not yet mature enough in its ten year life to be taking on such a role as a harbour for flight to safety. Ultimately, we believe risk markets are still quite exposed to the reality of exhausted monetary policy accommodation, and investor profit taking in elevated equities, will likely lead to a flight to safety bid that has a lot of that speculative money in Bitcoin, heading for safer horizons into traditional risk off plays.

“But we also believe there is tremendous potential that comes with decentralized, digital, peer to peer currency, and as we begin to see the possibilities more clearly, Bitcoin will regain its footing and get back to trading to the topside.

“This leaves us with an outlook for Bitcoin in 2019 that could see a continuation of weakness in the first half of the year, before the market finally stabilizes and starts to make its way back up in anticipation of what should be an impressive second wave for cryptoassets.

“We’ll look for Bitcoin to round out 2019 trading back in the $5,000 to $8,000 region, after recovering from lows that may have extended below $2000 between now and the end of H1 2019.”

Kevin Murcko, CEO of CoinMetro

“Despite Bitcoin’s fairly limited use cases, and even though its technology may be less sophisticated when compared to some other projects, it will likely continue to remain the market leader in 2019. Bitcoin still has the reputation and the liquidity that make it preferable to other cryptos.

“It’s difficult to put my finger on a price, however: Bitcoin’s value will continue to be driven by a great deal of financial speculation.

“It’s important to remember that the crash we saw with Bitcoin this year doesn’t indicate lack of long term value. The bubble may have burst in 2018, but there’s still enormous substance and potential in the crypto market at large.

“The dot-com bubble was a great example of this in action. What old school analyst saw tangible value in the internet? Amazon’s stock dropped to a low of $6 when the .com bubble burst, and today, the company trades at $1,500 per share.

“The cryptos that survive this crash will continue to gain strength next year, and in the years to come. Like Amazon and eBay, out of a collection of cryptos that fail, a small but significant minority will succeed.”

Mitch Blakeway, Head of Trading at Quantatex

“We expect a high degree of volatility in the very near future.

“A high level of Bitcoins has recently been moved from cold storage to hot storage by significant influencers in the cryptocurrency market. What this means is that investors who have the ability to move the market are gearing up to trade. This could mean moves greater than 10% in either direction.

“There are notable levels of support and resistance with support around the $2,850 level for Bitcoin and resistance around $4,000 therefore a break either below $2,850 or above $4,000 could lead to momentum in that direction.

“We believe that Bitcoin will eventually shrug off the recent weakness during 2019 and expect the price to retest record highs of $20,000 by December 2019. This is justified on a number of fronts.

“We expect an ETF in Bitcoin to be authorised by the SEC in 2019. We expect continued adoption of certain cryptocurrencies such as Ripple (XRP) by banking institutions during 2019, which will have the knock on effect of positivity for Bitcoin as other cryptocurrencies tend to be ‘pegged’ to Bitcoin.

“We also believe that once the selloff has finished there will be modest headroom above the current price which will allow for buying momentum.

“During the dotcom boom the price of Apple shares went from $1 to $4 before ‘collapsing’ to $1 again. It now trades at around $176 per share at time of writing, therefore anyone fearing the worst after the dotcom boom would have missed out whereas anyone with a bit of courage and forward thinking would have seen significant returns.”

George Ermakov, Head of Research & Development at Crypterium

“Previous Cryptreium research identified a Bitcoin support area in the range between $3,000 to $5,000. At the moment, Bitcoin is actively trading in this range.

“Based on the existence of important fundamental factors such as the launch of BAKKT ICE and NASDAQ futures, 2019 is expected to be positive for price dynamics.

“Technical analysis based on logarithmic scale shows the expected price levels that bitcoin can reach in 2019. Bitcoin is likely to reach a price of around $12,000, which will be an excellent result and can initiate a further growth in 2020. 2020 is close to another important date – the BTC ‘halving’.”

Lessons for the cryptocurrency community:

With the increased safety as well as precautions, it will be easier for the cryptocurrency experts to learn from these mistakes. Moreover, the exchanges will also be able to learn from these mistakes which will ensure that the cryptocurrency community becomes much more secure.

With increasingly positive voices coming out in favor of Bitcoin, it remains to be seen whether it will actually increase in value significantly until the end of year or whether it will remain around this levels. Many of the enthusiasts are actually predicting higher peaks as well as newer peaks for the cryptocurrencies. It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin will indeed be able to rise to $ 40,000 in the current calendar year or not. .

Bitcoin Price Predictions 2019: How high can Bitcoin price go in 2019? Up to $1 million or down to $100? (In-Depth Analysis)

Bitcoin prices in 2018 have been marked by volatility which has made bitcoin price prediction in short-term a bit of a challenge, even for the experienced analysts.

History generally has a way of repeating itself but bitcoin has a lot of history which makes it an equal challenge predicting which history will be repeated. It takes more than a study of past trends to get predictions spot-on this time and so we ended this article by highlighting certain area expert analysts were looking at.

Analysts, enthusiast, and industry figures have very diverging opinions and bitcoin price predictions for both long and short-term. Optimism is still high in many quarters—reports of a new survey among British financials suggest a wide majority will buy more coins in hope of price resurgence later this year.

As we delve into who’s saying what and why, here’s a heads-up. Expect a lot more price fluctuations in the interim. It’s going to be a bumpy ride getting to wherever Bitcoin is headed by the year’s end.

Here are some old expectations for Bitcoin Future:

Surely, Bitcoin is headed up – John McAfee

John McAfee, Bitcoin supporter and founder of the popular McAfee antivirus software, is being very positive about Bitcoin. He predicted that Bitcoin price will hit $1 million by 2020 following last year’s prediction of $7000 which was well surpassed.

When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bitcoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my d**k if wrong” – John McAfee[/perfectpullquote]

Apart from the economics behind the limited supply of Bitcoin, his prediction considered the factors like the increased adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain as well as a total cryptocurrency’s market cap around $162 billion which gives large room for growth.

Expect stability only after 10 years – Kristjan Dekleva (Hedge)

The Swiss-based financial expert will have us brace up for a decade of turbulence before any hope for a stable bitcoin. This he suggests will coincide with a general acceptance of Bitcoin even in hard-stance China. This though, not as a fiat replacement but a viable alternative.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“In my opinion, it will be at least 10 years before we see stability”. – Kristjan Dekleva (Hedge)[/perfectpullquote]
The finance expert at cryptocurrency project Hedge sees Bitcoin investments as all-too-similar to the DotCom bubble of the 90s.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“In the short-term, falls have been driven by emotion and in many cases disinformation – a small rumor can have a big impact…Demand is driven by market speculation, but the absence of institutional investors means the market is unstable.[/perfectpullquote]

Known for his disparaging remarks against Bitcoin, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Kenneth Rogoff has poured icy water on hopes of Bitcoin making it to the moon.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I think Bitcoin will be worth a tiny fraction of what it is now if we’re headed out 10 years from now…I would see $100 as being a lot more likely than $100,000.” – Kenneth Rogoff[/perfectpullquote]
Rogoff’s prediction is based on his long-held belief that governments will rise against anonymous virtual currencies like Bitcoin. Government regulations, according to Rogoff, will pop the Bitcoin bubble but a Bitcoin pioneer on Wall Street thinks along very different lines.

In 2014 with bitcoin at only $413, popular VC, Tim Draper predicted bitcoin to reach $10,000 in three years. This was fulfilled a month earlier than he predicated earning him a reputation among crypto fans. Though he didn’t categorically, predict a $100k Bitcoin in 2018, He said he expected the Bitcoin to continue its growth in an interview with Bloomberg last year. Tim Draper has made successful bets with Tesla, Skype, and Twitter in the past.

Assuming this growth happens at the same pace as the 3-year journey to $10k then we’re in for six digits. Maniacal right? That’s exactly how Draper feels about Bitcoin prospects. Now onto someone who understands a lot about bitcoin’s foundation.

Llew Classen made a bold statement to reassure Bitcoin believers that the cryptocurrency is on the right track –specifically, on track to reach the $40,000 mark. Though his outlook for some altcoin holders was not very encouraging, he made it clear that as something new, cryptocurrency will be as risky as it is exciting.

One of the popular Winkelvoss twins, Cameron Winklevoss recently said that he could easily see the price of BTC go up 40% someday. This year maybe? Not likely. The twin said he and his brother were taking longer outlook, 10 to 20 years.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Bitcoin is actually fixed in supply so it’s better than scarce … it sort of equals a better gold across the board. We think regardless of the price moves in the last few weeks, it’s still a very underappreciated asset.” – Winklevoss [/perfectpullquote]
The fourth wealthiest cryptocurrency investor weighed bitcoin’s prospect against gold and came up with a resounding verdict. “We believe bitcoin disrupts gold,” He said.

Bitcoin will reach $1million – Bobby Lee (CEO BTCC Exchange)

Bobby Lee, CEO of China’s first Bitcoin exchange speaking at the London Blockchain Week went overboard with his prediction. Lee said bitcoin will surpass $1 million but unlike McAfee, he could see this happen in 20 years’ time.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Bitcoin, I think will get to $1 million per bitcoin…Right now it’s 10,000, it will go 100,000 and then 200,000, 500,000.” – Bobby Lee[/perfectpullquote]

IN SUMMARY

A good number of analysts have also had their say though very few would be drawn into actual predictions. We observed a general trend in their assessments.

Expect Price Fluctuations:

At this stage, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will be greatly affected by speculations. Even small developments in governments, traditional will likely affect prices. Most say the fluctuations are normal and wouldn’t affect the longer term outlook.

Long-term outlook

Experts would prefer to make predictions over a longer period. It is more common to have bitcoin price predictions for 2020 or a 10 to 20-year outlook. While the current reality may suggest some gloom, it’s worth remembering that the heights achieved last year came amidst similar corrections along the way. It’s only the 1st quarter of the year.

Bitcoin will be the standard for virtual currencies.

Though bitcoin may have a limited use case, it has been tipped to remain the king of all cryptocurrencies. It’s not going to be a case of “which altcoin will overtake bitcoin” rather how they will impress with their special use cases. It is a fact that the technology behind bitcoin is less sophisticated when compared to many other projects like ethereum.

Bitcoin as a store of value

Gradually, bitcoin is being seen more as a store of value that an actual currency being compared to gold and other assets. Bitcoin was originally designed as an alternative currency to bank the unbanked. Most decision making bodies and financial experts, however, see Bitcoin more as a store of value, an asset rather than a medium of transaction.

Many Altcoins will suffer

Part of the process that will lead to general acceptance of cryptocurrencies will include a clean-up of “useless” cryptocurrencies. A good number of the 2000 coins will naturally go away as their value become worthless—some, only a fraction of cent. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple and Llew Claasen of Bitcoin Foundation are among those raising this alarm.

Economics of Scarcity

The limited supply of bitcoin—a fixed supply 21 million BTCs—will play a role in its price; if not now, in the future.

Outside factors will play a significant role

Many observers believe that outside factors which affect the adoption of bitcoin will ultimately dictate the price in the short-term. The creation and performance of futures markets, for instance, is expected to tilt the price either way.

There are still concerns about bitcoins used for illicit purposes

Due to the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, it has been used to conduct illegal activities giving Bitcoin a general bad image. This image, analysts believe will affect its adoption and ultimately its prospects in the future.

Finally, Caution against risking your life savings

Crypto investments are new and super-risky. Remember ethereum founder saying that cryptos are so risky the prizes might actually drop to zero. Well, that doesn’t seem practical but the message was clear. Do not invest your life savings in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies generally. Just like John Draper noted, you still need to buy stuff in fiat. So while bitcoin will likely worth a lot more in the future, it’s advisable to invest just as much as one can afford to lose.